The present invention relates to a machine for automatically selecting shellfish within a particular range of sizes from the catch brought on board a commercial fishing vessel or the like, and for washing the graded shellfish.
In the commerical catching of shellfish, such as scallops and the like, a special trawl is typically dragged along the bottom of the sea by a fishing boat. The trawl, often called "plow," scrapes up shellfish and other marine animals lying at the sea bottom, along with stones, gravel and other waste. On board the vessel, the shellfish must be separated from the waste, graded and sorted, and preferably also cleaned in preparation for further processing. This grading and cleaning is often very hard work and typically takes a long period of time.
Various machines have been proposed for grading and washing shellfish. Such machines, however, are typically rather complicated and require large amounts of room. Space is, of course, at a premium aboard ship. It is thus desirable to provide a compact machine operable automatically to grade and clean shellfish.